Devices are known in the prior art for trimming and/or peeling onions or other produce. The general objective of the present invention is to greatly improve on the known prior art through the provisions of a more simplified, reliable and more economical method and machine for automatically and continuously trimming onions while eliminating many recognized complications and deficiencies of the prior art which have hindered commercial acceptance of such machines in the past.
it is presently the practice at commercial canneries and the like for workers to pick up onions, one at a time, and hand-orient them and insert them individually into a carrier which transports the onions into engagement with trimming blades which snip off the two ends of the onions transversely of their stem axes. This process is very slow and requires an enormous amount of hand labor in relation to the amount of the product being treated. Production is limited to thirty or forty onions per minute under the traditional method. The present invention accomplishes the trimming of at least 150 onions per minute with complete automation, thus eliminating the aforementioned hand labor. The advantages of the invention over the prior art will be quickly apparent to those skilled in the art.
To comply with the duty to disclose known prior art under 37 C.F.R. 1.56, the following prior U.S. Patents are made of record herein: Nos.
2,212,213 PA1 2,289,015 PA1 2,961,023 PA1 3,154,124 PA1 3,212,545 PA1 3,402,748 PA1 3,454,066 PA1 3,621,900.